


heart, broken

by lilyvalley



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Domestic Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Marauders' Era, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 19:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2882960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyvalley/pseuds/lilyvalley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the first time Druella has considered suicide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	heart, broken

This is the first time Druella has considered suicide.

Throughout the miserable second half of her life, throughout all of it, she has suffered and survived in stoic silence. Every time Cygnus hit her, every time Bella hit her, every time she had to see one of her baby girls hurt at the hands of their older sister - but never by Cygnus, she never let him - a piece of her soul fell away and shattered, but Druella had learned to live through it all, to face the world with her disarming smile and effortless grace.

Today, nothing seems effortless anymore. Even asking the house elves to perform simple tasks, even murmuring worthless sentiments for Cygnus, even _putting on makeup_ seems like a dreadful chore that her weary limbs cannot bear to perform. Today is the farthest cry she has ever been from the pureblood princess she once was.

Druella kneels on the cold alabaster tiles, watching the water slowly fill up the bathtub and wondering how she has reached this point. It all used to be perfect. _She_ used to be perfect. Druella Rosier, the belle of every ball, the stunning beauty, the cunning, lucky girl who wormed her way into earning a coveted spot in the Black family. She'd been the winner. They had all envied her - the girl who married Cygnus Black, the girl who became a Black. The one they all wanted to be - she had been that girl. Druella would have wanted to be herself too, if she had been an outsider watching her life.

Until the day Cygnus struck her for her cheek, and all she could do was bite her lip and say nothing. Until the day she had given Cygnus a daughter, and upon his narrowed eyes, she had pleaded for a second chance. Until the day that second chance had required a third, and until the day that third chance had yielded yet another daughter and Cygnus had hit her so hard Druella could not find the strength to stand up again.

Then the perfect Druella had been no more. _Three daughters, no sons._ The laughingstock of pure society. Even then Druella, for all the shame and humiliation thrust upon her, had not considered ending her sad, pathetic life.

But today... today has brought Druella more shame than she can bear.

Once they had miraculously married off Bellatrix, Druella thought everything else would be easy. It is a shameful thing for a mother to admit her child is a monster, but Druella cannot deny that Bella's humanity ceased to exist a long time ago, and she was all too happy to usher her eldest out of her household. If they could find someone to marry Bellatrix, then surely finding husbands for Andromeda and Narcissa should be hardly a problem at all.

Andromeda has always been difficult, to Druella's half-chagrin, so she is not surprised when Narcissa is betrothed first, to Lucius Malfoy. A better match Druella could not have asked for. But she assures her middle daughter that she will find her someone soon and that Andromeda need not worry about replicating poor Cassiopeia's spinster fate.

Oh, if only she had known.

Of all the ways to discover Andromeda's egregious tragedy, a half-smug, half-hysterical Howler from Walburga is the worst. _SHE HAS BROUGHT FILTH AND MUCK TO OUR PRESTIGIOUS NAME! YOUR DAUGHTER, DRUELLA!_

Yes. Her daughter.

Druella shuts the faucet off, now that the bathtub is full, and she glances to the side to look at herself in the mirror - one last time. Gone is the preening princess, the radiant bride, the incorrigible beauty that is Druella Rosier. Before her is only a woman barely in her 40s, her hair streaked with gray and the remains of Cygnus's last tantrum on her left eye.

Upon Cygnus's decision to claim Bellatrix as his surrogate heir, Druella devoted herself to raising her remaining two daughters. It was Andromeda who Druella poured all her hopes and dreams and goals and aspirations into. It was Andromeda she hoped would be her shining example of a pureblood lady, as she had been for her mother. It was Andromeda she had trained and groomed to perfection.

And it was Andromeda who had left them all to marry a Muggleborn.

It is this act - this selfish, permanent betrayal - that has reduced Druella to this. Kneeling in front of a bathtub full of water, calmly breathing her last breaths. When Cygnus hit her - all the times Cygnus hit her - she bore it. When Bellatrix began to turn into a monster and she could do nothing to stop it, she bore it. But this, this she cannot bear. Andromeda, her pride, her joy, her hope, her _daughter_ , has broken her heart.

With one last gasp, Druella sinks herself into the water.


End file.
